University Anti-Poverty and Access Programmes
At York we offer a variety of financial supports to recognize your accomplishments in all forms, including your leadership, determination and resilience. The institution offers a variety of merit-based and targeted support programs to support students coming from lower income or precarious backgrounds. We look forward to celebrating your achievements and supporting your success as you invest in a university education.
Featured Scholarships & Financial Aid
York Automatic Entrance Scholarship
Our entrance scholarships are available to domestic high school applicants admitted to a direct entry undergraduate program. This entrance scholarship is automatically applied, renewable at each year level, and can be regained when you recover the minimum required GPA. Recipients of this scholarship who elect to participate in an exchange program in years 2, 3 or 4 will also receive the York University Study Abroad Award, valued at $1,500.
Tentanda Via Award
45 domestic awards valued at $40,000 ($10,000 x 4 years)
15 international awards valued at $120,000 ($30,000 x 4 years)
Capturing the enduring spirit of York's motto, the Tentanda Via Award recognizes undergraduate students who have demonstrated resilience in overcoming significant personal barriers in the pursuit of a university education and changemakers who are committed to progressive and sustainable development issues.
President's International Scholarship of Excellence
20 international awards valued at $180,000 ($45,000 x 4 years)
The President's International Scholarship of Excellence will be awarded to international high school applicants who demonstrate academic excellence, commitment to volunteer work and extracurricular activities, and leadership skills. Recipients will represent a variety of regions around the world and will be referred to as 'President's International Scholars'.
View All Scholarships and Awards for Incoming Students
Explore scholarships, entrance awards and financial aid for new students at York University.
Specialty Scholarships
Indigenous Students
We promote the success of our Indigenous students with a variety of campus initiatives, including dedicated funding.
Refugee and Asylum-Seeker Support
York University strives to support the 15 by 30 Goal set by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to offer pursue and accomplish the enrolment of 15% of refugees in higher education by 2030. Fuelled by conflict, ecological collapse, and migration, the global population of refugees has increased in recent years from approximately 89 million in 2021 to nearly 120 million in 2024. Higher education must do its part in supporting and advocating for refugee rights and accessibility through advocacy, supports and direct action.
Sanctuary Scholars Program
Launched in 2017, York became the first university in Canada to offer an access pathway specifically for students with precarious immigration status and are applying for refugee or asylum status. The Sanctuary Scholars Program offers eligible students to pay domestic fee rates instead of international student rates. Additionally, a bridging program is offered to help refugees who may not have completed all the necessary academic requirements for study.
Centre for Refugee Studies (CRS)
Founded 36 years ago, the Centre for Refugee Studies (CRS) at York is an interdisciplinary community of researchers dedicated to advancing the well-being of refugees and others displaced by violence, persecution, human rights abuses, and environmental degradation through innovative research, education, and policy engagement. To support refugee access, CRS also offers a number of bursaries to refugee students.
Refugee Law Lab
Based at York's Osgoode Hall Law School, the Refugee Law Lab undertakes research and advocacy for refugees in Canada by developing and sharing datasets and legal analytics to enhance transparency in refugee law processes.
11 April 2023
Osgoode launches app to aid in immigration, refugee hearings
A new online application from a team led by Sean Rehaag, associate professor at Osgoode Hall Law School and director of its Refugee Law Lab, is designed to equip lawyers with critical legal data needed to improve their odds of winning refugee protections for migrants at risk.
Learn more.
Refugee Initiative
Borderless Higher Education for Refugees
BHER seeks to contribute to efforts to establish the conditions for justice, sustainability, and peace in Kenya, Somalia, and the surrounding Eastern/Central African region through the provision of equitable, gender-sensitive, and culturally-responsive accredited university programs to untrained refugee and local teachers and community leaders in Dadaab, Kenya. In partnership with Kenyatta University, Windle International and the UNHCR, York's BHER initiative is one of the few projects that offers programs and contributes to community capacity building in situ.
Community Anti-Poverty Programs
York University operates and supports several major local and international outreach projects aiming to advocate for the socially marginalized communities experiencing systemic poverty through research, policy formulation, access programmes and knowledge mobilization.
Canadian Observatory on Homelessness at York University
The Canadian Observatory on Homelessness is a non-partisan research and policy partnership between academics, policy and decision makers, service providers and people with lived experience of homelessness. Hosted by the Faculty of Education in York University, the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness
In 2024, York was also featured in Canada’s 2024 Annual Report on the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals for action towards SDG 1 (No Poverty). Homelessness Learning Hub, developed by the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness based at York University, is nationally regarded as an important resource for the homeless-serving sector across Canada.
Projects & Initiatives:
Homeless Hub
The Homeless Hub is a repository and library of over 30,000 resources and research studies for the study and advocacy of homelessness. Various collections study programs to prevent and address poverty and how homelessness affects youth, Black communities and the 2SLGBTQ+ population.
Homelessness Learning Hub
The Homelessness Learning Hub offers training and resources based on evidence-based research on homelessness. Learning is designed to be self-paced with videos and short, practical readings with the aim of boosting capacity in the homeless-serving sector.
Making the Shift
As a social innovation lab, Making the Shift uses the principles of co-creation, co-ownership, and deep collaboration between researchers, policymakers, service providers, and people with lived experience of youth homelessness to identify what works and for whom..
Toronto Centre of Excellence on Youth Homelessness Prevention
The Toronto Centre of Excellence (TCE) on Youth Homelessness Prevention at York University is a Geneva UN Charter Centre that mobilizes and adapts Canadian and international innovations, leadership, and knowledge on youth homelessness prevention and sustainable exits from homelessness.
Community & Legal Aid Services Program (CLASP)
CLASP is a legal aid clinic at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University. For qualifying cases, we can provide free legal advice and representation to eligible low income individuals in the City of Toronto and to York students.
All students are under the supervision of lawyers. Please note that our capacity is limited, and even if you qualify for our services, our caseload might be full.
Program Highlights
Administrative Law and ID Clinic
Assists eligible individuals in dealing with the government, particularly helping clients obtain identification documents needed to receive social services, health and immigration documents.
Criminal Law
Provides free legal representation to clients charged with certain criminal offences and who have been denied a Legal Aid Certificate.
Immigration Law
The Immigration Law Division helps new immigrants and refugees come to Canada.
The York University-TD Community Engagement Centre (CEC), located in the York Gate Mall, is a satellite office of York University. The CEC strives for academic innovation through community building and experiential learning, post-secondary attainment for Black Creek Community, and fosters collaborative research and partnerships. Our local approach informs our thinking more broadly about community engagement and the role of the university in strengthening communities and addressing societal issues.
Foster academic innovation in teaching and learning through community experiential education opportunities.
Support post-secondary educational attainment among community residents and the development of academic pathways.
Enhance the capacity of York faculty/students and community partners to work collaboratively on community-based research.
Coordinate institutional structure to respond to community requests and opportunities for university-community collaborations.
Support and outreach for reskilling, retooling & developing opportunity for people to thrive.
In addition to supporting community based research, since 2014, the TD Community Engagement Centre has awarded approximately $150,000 in partnership projects promoting access to post-secondary education, supporting community-based research and creating experiential education opportunities for students through the Catalyst Grants Program. Catalyst Grants are aimed at providing start-up funding for collaborative projects between York University and the Black Creek community. This grant seeks to empower innovative solutions that address community challenges, enhance local resources, and promote sustainable development in partnership with York University.
Poverty is an ongoing issue in Canada and those socially marginalized such as the Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer, plus (2SLGBTQ+) can be considerably more vulnerable to it. The 2SLGBTQ+ Poverty in Canada: Improving Livelihood and Social Wellbeing is an innovative, multidisciplinary collaboration will remedy a critical gap in anti-poverty research and policy.
This project will study both the extent and effects of poverty on the 2SLGBTQ+ communities across Canada, and importantly produce an evidence-based action plan that can assist governmental agencies, non-profits, and private organizations to address poverty therein.
Grounded in community-based participatory research (CBPR), a Community Advisory Board (CAB) of 2SLGBTQ+ people as well as 2SLGBTQ+ peer researchers with experiences of poverty, will inform the entire research process and knowledge mobilization. Their insights will foreground our inquiry and methods.
24 non-profits focusing on 2SLGBTQ+ inclusion and/or poverty reduction partner with this project. Our three institutional partners and the host provide novel training opportunities to students and junior scholars.Ranging from early career researchers to full professors, our scholars bring economic, health, social sciences, and humanities expertise to the team.
Objectives
1
Document the lived experiences of poverty among 2SLGBTQ+ communities to create a unique national-level dataset allowing for an intersectional examination of 2SLGBTQ+ poverty rates, poverty risk, and associated root-causes and consequences.
2
Build authentic collaborations between scholars, students, community partners, and 2SLGBTQ+ people with lived experiences of poverty, throughout the research process, for effective societal impact.
3
Mobilize poverty knowledge through a 2SLGBTQ+ lens to inform research, policy, funding, and programming within academia, government, and community.
4
Develop an evidence-based Action Plan, usable by governmental agencies, non-profits, and private organizations, to address 2SLGBTQ+ poverty in Canada.